[Hiring] Staff Engineer, AI Operations @Ontra

Role Description

Ontra is seeking a Staff Engineer, AI Operations , reporting to our Director of AI Operations. As the first engineer dedicated to the function, this person will have broad company impact while remaining hands-on.

We're looking for someone excited to:

• Serve as the technical lead for company-wide Internal AI work.
• Partner with business and technical owners to choose the right response to priority problems.
• Build and operate dependable AI Operations-owned solutions.
• Collaborate with AI engineers across GTM, Finance, Build, and other teams on architecture and review.

If you're someone who brings sound technical and business judgment, designs practical architecture without overbuilding, treats production ownership as part of the job, leads cross-functionally without relying on reporting authority, exercises strong security and data judgment, and communicates tradeoffs clearly, we'd love to get to know you.

What You'll Do

• Set Technical Direction for Internal AI: Evaluate technical options for prioritized Internal AI work and recommend the architecture, integrations, and delivery approach.
• Design and Deliver Dependable, Reusable Systems: Architect, build, and operate selected services, agents, integrations, and automations for agreed Internal AI priorities.
• Partner Across the Business: Work closely with business and technical owners across GTM, Finance, Build, and other teams to assess problems, align on approach, and move decisions forward.
• Lead Through Technical Partnership: Shape cross-system architecture decisions and guide design and code review for Internal AI work.
• Support Trusted Company Context: Assess and implement selected interfaces and integrations that help approved AI systems use reliable company data and knowledge.
• Own Production Reliability: Ensure every service you ship has qualified review, a named owner and backup, documentation, monitoring, recovery steps, and a maintenance plan.
• Deliver Against Milestones: Own the technical assessment, design, implementation, and operation of agreed Internal AI priorities, meeting quality, reliability, recovery, usage, and cost targets.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with demonstrated Staff-level scope and impact across teams or systems.
• Hands-on experience delivering production AI systems is required.
• A track record of setting technical direction across multiple teams, systems, or business areas.
• Experience shipping and operating at least one production AI-enabled system.
• Experience designing internal services, agents, APIs, integrations, automations, or data flows across system boundaries.
• Ability to assess unfamiliar systems and provide strong design and code review across technical boundaries.
• Strong hands-on production software engineering skills; recent Python experience is preferred.
• SQL and data validation experience is a plus.

Requirements

• Experience in evaluating technical options and recommending architecture.
• Ability to architect, build, and operate services and integrations.
• Strong collaboration skills with business and technical owners.
• Ability to shape architecture decisions and guide design and code reviews.
• Experience ensuring production reliability and maintenance planning.
• Ability to meet quality, reliability, recovery, usage, and cost targets.

Benefits

• Remote-first working policy, with office hubs in NYC, Santa Barbara, and London.
• Twice yearly team offsites for in-person collaboration.
• Paid flexible time off policy.
• Paid parental leave and benefits.
• Employer-supported retirement contributions, varying by country.
• Monthly phone and internet reimbursement.
• Company-sponsored learning and development resources.
• Various options for medical, dental, and vision insurance.